The school year at the Winchendon School begins with building community, both on and off-campus. Boarding students spend the first weekend on-campus learning about their roommates, floormates, and where to find their laundry. During the second week of school, we kick off our service-learning projects by building bonds in our greater community. Today, students were in the field both in and out of Winchendon giving back to the community our school calls home.
Students were broken into groups by class theme. For example, first-year students are learning to make the progression from thinking about “me” to “we” and spent time harvesting vegetables for the Worcester Foodbank, while Sophomores were leading Local Change in groups as diverse as a buddy program with the local elementary school, food justice, economic justice, and Veterans Outreach.
Juniors broke into smaller groups and spread out to Winchendon, Fitchburg, and Leominster/Gardner to learn and participate in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice topics in housing, food justice, and public assistance at Our Father’s House in Fitchburg, Three Pyramids in Winchendon, and the Spanish American Center.
Seniors and PGs got their hands busy in Habitat for Humanity projects, picnic table rehabilitation, creating a nature story walk for families, and beautification projects around Winchendon.
We thank Elliot Harvey for these photos of students walking into town for their day of service. Elliot, the School’s photographer, runs Winchtagram, one of the best social media pages on social media – check it out!
